tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959Fri, 03 Oct 2014 06:21:42 +0000Paul SchraderA Face in the CrowdAlysson ParadisAnn MagnusonAuto FocusBeatrice DalleBob CraneBob DylanBreakfast at Tiffany'sCandice BergenCassavetesFinal CutFrykowskiGena RowlandsGloriaHudI'm Not ThereInsideMaya DerenMishimaOpening NightOzuPatricia KrenwinkelPatricia NealPaul NewmanPhillip GlassRoman PolanskiRosemary's BabyScreamShelly DuvallSusan AtkinsSusanna MooreTennessee WilliamsTerry MelcherThe FountainheadThe ShiningTodd HaynesTruman CapoteWoman Under the InfluenceWoman's PictureeditingperfumeIntermittent Movement<br><br>A Blog by Brian Pera<br><br>http://brianpera.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)Blogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-4397916780509865259Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:22:00 +00002011-01-08T08:55:48.998-08:00Seeing is Relieving: The Paintings of Melissa DunnLast night, I saw one of the more beautiful paintings I've ever stood in front of. It felt like more than a painting but it wasn't trying to be an exclamation point; it was happy to suck in the world and simmer it in the frame, and going over to it was like checking in on a stew. I couldn't figure out what the cook put in it to make it smell so amazing. Some cooks make you immediately ask the http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2011/01/seeing-is-relieving-paintings-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-5072646436599822232Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:11:00 +00002011-01-08T09:30:56.868-08:00Busy Being BusyI've been looking back at the experience of my first film a lot lately, not just because it's been offered distribution but because it was a vastly different endeavor than the one I'm working on now. We edited that first film, THE WAY I SEE THINGS, over the course of several years, then I started taking it around to festivals. The music we used consisted of tracks already recorded by Harlan T. http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/12/busy-being-busy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-3859728843611664284Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:39:00 +00002010-07-10T17:13:13.593-07:00WOMAN'S PICTURE Alphabet: R for RoomsBuilding sets was a big part of making WOMAN'S PICTURE for me. So many of the characters are trying to create and control their own spaces, spaces which vary in degrees from total constructions to practical locations, just like on a movie shoot. What makes each space real has more to do with powers of imagination than anything else, and the level of vigilance used to enforce certain desired http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/07/womans-picture-alphabet-r-for-rooms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-6614682700501275211Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:30:00 +00002010-06-14T20:44:54.129-07:00WOMAN'S PICTURE Alphabet: C for ChildhoodWhen Ingrid and Mackie arrive at Ingrid's childhood home, they park outside with the windows open. Ingrid stares hard at the house as Mackie struggles with the tie she's made him wear. He complains, wondering what they're doing there. Ingrid hasn't spoken to her mother in a decade. The woman is obviously a bore. Why is Ingrid, who seems so independent, subjecting herself to the scrutiny, http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/06/womans-picture-alphabet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-1324262447119656340Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:40:00 +00002010-06-07T13:01:31.355-07:00Stills From A Short in Progresshttp://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/06/stills-from-short-in-progress.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-2753948337476821667Fri, 28 May 2010 15:36:00 +00002010-05-30T11:13:22.061-07:00Ann MagnusonperfumeWOMAN'S PICTURE Sources: My Grandmother's Violet PerfumeThe last third of Woman's Picture involves an incident with a bottle of perfume.The bottle sits out on Miriam Masterson's dresser, away from everything else. It belonged to her mother. Miriam doesn't seem to wear it, but at night, sitting there alone, she sniffs from it, stepping into some parallel dimension of stillness beyond regret, self-doubt, and the hamster wheel of ceaseless daily http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/05/sources-my-grandmothers-violet-perfume.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-7023949781810763318Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:03:00 +00002010-03-27T10:34:14.841-07:00Cassavette's Gloria as Hot MessIt's exhilarating to watch Tilda Swinton in JULIA. The director says their film was inspired by Gena Rowlands in GLORIA. I would say the inspiration is a lot more expansive than that, because while Julia, like Gloria, is selfish and tough, she's also channeling a certain alcoholic dishevelment that Gloria doesn't share. True, there's the uneasy relationship with a child. Both Gloria and Juliahttp://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/03/cassavettes-gloria-as-hot-mess.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-4091430888268322168Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:57:00 +00002010-03-12T08:32:38.972-08:00Get Real: The Bullshit Artist As Hipster HistorianSeveral years ago, when my novel Troublemaker was published, I was inevitably asked by people whether it was autobiographical or not. They wanted to know how much of it was real. That seemed like such a bizarre line of questioning to me. It wasn't something I'd heard much, or asked of the books I'd liked. This was 2000. It's worse now. Back then, already, everything had to be memoir. http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/03/get-real-bullshit-artist-tells-it-like.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-8214283618930246920Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:57:00 +00002010-02-21T11:38:36.932-08:00The Dinosaur Carries on Viewing the Leaf as the TreeA few weeks ago, I attended the Film Finance Summit in Los Angeles. I could probably stop there. People who think they know me ask what the hell I was thinking. I like to see how things work. I like to observe people. I love film and what's happening excites me, the democratization of means, the sound of all those doors flying off their hinges. A thing like the Film Finance Summit declares http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/02/dinosaur-carries-on-viewing-leaf-as.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-4885521947539564950Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:08:00 +00002010-02-05T09:26:01.490-08:00Musical Steroids"Most movies use music the way athletes use steroids. There's no question that you can induce a certain emotion with music--just like steroids build up muscle. It gives you an edge, it gives you speed, but it's unhealthy for the organism in the long run."I might have agreed with editor Walter Murch at some point. It's a way of looking at film, having to do with willing suspension of disbelief.http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/02/musical-steroids.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-2682847086697388772Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:07:00 +00002010-02-05T09:28:06.464-08:00Indie Filmmaker Bullshit Detector: On Sale, Super Low Price, Quarter of a Mill point Ninety-Nine!When contemporary filmmakers start talking about beating the system, I tend to put them on mute. It's like the creeping realization that the once-familiar lady you're talking to at the supermarket is the latest to have been grabbed, lobotomized, and made over in a silly shade of lipstick by the Stepford contingent.Beating the system used to be a pretty noble idea. The thing is, there is no http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/01/indie-filmmaker-bullshit-detector-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-7639187428773853907Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:02:00 +00002010-01-14T09:04:36.806-08:00LikableA heated boardroom exchange between characters played by Ann Magnuson and Gerald L'Ecuyer is one of several set pieces in WOMAN'S PICTURE which have required a special kind of attention in the editing room.The exchange is scripted at fourteen pages, much of which is delivered by Ann. The segment she appears in as Miriam Masterson is seen through the eyes of her character, a woman who recalls http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/01/likable.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-924983555933859083Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:25:00 +00002010-01-09T07:12:47.436-08:00Cutting GoreI've been watching other movies to see how they handle gore, accidents, violence, hysteria. A crucial scene of WOMAN'S PICTURE concerns a woman who lives inside her head, and the whole segment, her story, is very insular, ultimately concluding in an act of trauma.The woman works as a maid in an out of the way motel. She's a very repressed character and if you go by critic Mary Ann Doane's http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/01/cutting-gore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-5171999444912155167Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:13:00 +00002010-01-08T16:30:32.780-08:00From Reginald Marsh to Agnes MartinI appreciate what Joel and Ethan Coen do much of the time but as a whole their work can leave me cold. It's too airtight in a certain way. It tends to be a little smug. I respond to about one in three of their films, which seems generous, given how prolific they are. I'd never really paid much attention to their editing, though I know it's a huge part of what they do. These days, I'm http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-appreciate-what-joel-and-ethan-coen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-3626926019917567978Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:27:00 +00002010-01-04T16:23:46.665-08:00editingFinal CutWoman's PictureI've been reading Fine Cuts and First Cut, two anthologies of interviews with film editors, as I edit WOMAN'S PICTURE. I can't remember where I got First Cut, back in 1992, but I guess I've probably read it a dozen times or so since then. I gave it away at some point, thinking I'd internalized the information and could do without it. Someone else seemed to need it more than I did at the time.http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2010/01/ive-been-reading-fine-cuts-and-first.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-6957969002173101671Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:32:00 +00002009-07-02T15:34:47.800-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT contributor Donal Mosher Wins AwardThis year’s SILVERDOCS Sterling Award for a US Feature goes to OCTOBER COUNTRY. The film, directed by Michael Palmieri and LIFE AS WE SHOW IT contributor Donal Mosher, documents the multi-generational story of a working-class family coping with poverty, teen pregnancy, foster care and the ineffable horrors of child molestation and war. The directors will receive $10,000 cash. The festival ran http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/07/life-as-we-show-it-contributor-donal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-300389489303739281Fri, 29 May 2009 22:02:00 +00002009-05-29T15:09:41.123-07:00David Thomson on Film Fusion"To put it very simply, and to return to the matter of absorption or direction, I suggest that many people from a certain range of history--people born between about 1900 and 1950--are like screens. That is to say that countless films have played upon our surface, whether we like it or not. And not just many films, but many films many times... We have seen Dark Victory or Chinatown or Kane so http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/david-thomson-on-film-fusion.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-3842494773879749005Wed, 27 May 2009 23:33:00 +00002009-05-27T16:42:54.438-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT: WRITING ON FILM Contributor Elizabeth Hatmaker's Film Journal, Final Day. "The Bride" (1973), directed by Jean-Marie Pélissie"It's hard to figure out what's relevant and what's not relevant" ahip young man, probably a cult film fan, says to a chubby smart-girl at a wedding.Well, these are times of confusion and changes, right? observes an off-screenonlooker. I'm not confused, the smart girl says"That's because you aren't relevant" says the young man.Alouette plays in the back on accordion and later the same young http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-writing-on-film_27.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-9203062624084773267Tue, 26 May 2009 22:45:00 +00002009-05-26T15:57:33.434-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT: WRITING ON FILM contributor Elizabeth Hatmaker keeps a film journal, Day 3: "Cindy and Donna" (1970), directed by Robert AndersonAre you afraid to be a woman?Cindy and Donnawear short skirts Donna lets a boy put his hand between herlegs as a form of goodbye. Theirhouse appears to have a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass window,except up close it’s a dingy kitchen curtain. There’s a bar by the door; it seems like somethingsomeone saw in a movie. Cindy is 20 and 13 and she’s Donna’s sister.Their mother does a badhttp://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-writing-on-film_26.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-3388469236013986414Thu, 21 May 2009 16:45:00 +00002009-05-21T09:50:31.475-07:00Richard Grayson: The Forgotten Movie Screens of Broward County, from LIFE AS WE SHOW ITLIFE AS WE SHOW IT contributor Richard Grayson's story has been excerpted on the literary online mag Rumpus, with original artwork.http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/richard-grayson-forgotten-movie-screens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-3505631458116745570Thu, 21 May 2009 13:42:00 +00002009-05-21T07:29:39.204-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT: WRITING ON FILM contributor Elizabeth Hatmaker keeps a film journal, day 2..."Blood Mania"Blood Maniaincest in the context overlaid by credits in the first 2 minutes then we’re ask to forget it matters.The secret blood is abortion we find out although there is no blood in much of the film.Only nice house and women that maybe abortion allows. It’s the chiaroscuro thattacky houses produce, crazy shit going down around the dying father. A woman slashing away at an unseen picture, http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-writing-on-film_21.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-6141491136245208857Wed, 20 May 2009 16:06:00 +00002009-05-20T09:23:33.406-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT: WRITING ON FILM contributor Elizabeth Hatmaker Keeps a Film Journal“Hysteresis”, Elizabeth Hatmaker's contribution to LIFE AS WE SHOW IT, re-views a largely forgotten film called Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff, regarding it from various perspectives (close-up, wide shot, inside out, outside in) which call into question the idea that only so-called classic films have something to say or to read and that only one way of watching is worth one's time or reaps rewards.Over http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-writing-on-film_20.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-1482970989220741685Fri, 15 May 2009 16:30:00 +00002009-05-15T09:36:57.318-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT contributor Wayne Koestenbaum on Star-F!@*ingGrowing up with this preoccupation with stardom...people from official histories also become stars. So for you, Emily Dickinson is a star, in the same way that Michael Jackson might be.WAYNE: Right. Well, stars ... I have my most interesting thoughts and feelings around stars.Is a star someone you intensely transfer feelings onto?WAYNE: Right. Somebody I discovered, not by meeting them, but by http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-contributor-wayne.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-9134254477999502451Thu, 14 May 2009 17:19:00 +00002009-05-14T10:23:14.520-07:00LIFE AS WE SHOW IT contributor Daphne Gottlieb on the slasher film as a version of social drama:LiP Magazine: Are you a fan of slasher films?Daphne Gottlieb: I admire them, I like them. Like pornos, they’re about bodily fluids, in this case blood and guts—things we normally don’t get to talk about. At their center, slasher films represent all the things we have to suppress to function as a society—incest, mental illness, deformity, death, vomit, blood, feces. They socially mimic what our http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-contributor-daphne.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8765689775858290959.post-266131255068032606Tue, 12 May 2009 20:47:00 +00002009-05-12T15:54:09.725-07:00Life As We Show It: Writing on Film, a review from the May/June 2009 Film CommentAfter writer Maggie Nelson’s aunt Jane was murdered, Nelson’s mother could no longer stomach films in which women were threatened by guns. Going to the movies years later, Nelson describes how “whenever such a scene arose I immediately felt my mother close beside me in the dark theatre. Her hands spread across her face, her pinkies pushing down on her eyelids so she can’t see.” There are many http://brianpera.blogspot.com/2009/05/life-as-we-show-it-writing-on-film.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (a blog by Brian Pera)0